Press release:

Tickets for the 2012 Highline Garden Tour are now on sale. This much-anticipated annual event, which takes place Saturday, June 9, allows participants to visit beautiful gardens in Burien, Normandy Park, and SeaTac.

A special feature of the tour this year will be the chance to talk in-depth with the Seahurst neighbors who recently joined forces to install a cluster of rain gardens up and down their street. They did this under the auspices of 12,000 Rain Gardens, a region-wide campaign that is working to reduce polluted stormwater run-off into Puget Sound and other local waterways. Spearheaded by Washington State University Extension and the non-profit conservation organization Stewardship Partners, the campaign hopes to install 12,000 rain gardens throughout the Puget Sound region by 2016.

Ticket holders on the self-guided Highline Garden Tour also will encounter plein air artists at work in many of the gardens, as well as the opportunity to enjoy the private garden of popular local ceramic artist Dana Lasswell and to purchase her works.

Other tour features include a plant sale at the Highline-SeaTac Botanical Garden, discount coupons for a grab-and-go lunch special at Grand Central Bakery and for beverages at The Bean, and a drawing for a $100 gift certificate from Herr Backyard Garden Center. Event sponsorship support comes from John L. Scott realtor Susan Plecko, Discover Burien, Rodda and Sons Landscaping, and Burien Bark.

Advance tickets for the Highline Garden Tour are only $15, with group rates of $12 per person if bought in groups of four or more. Tickets will be $18 on the day of the tour. Tickets can be purchased in person at Herr Backyard Garden Center, 107 SW 160th Street and Burien Bark, 13258 1st Avenue S, or over the phone by calling 206-241-5786.

For more information about the Highline Garden Tour and about the Highline Historical Society, visit www.highlinehistory.org.